Skill-based training helps Mayank turn new chapter

Life has come a full circle for Karnataka batsman Mayank Agarwal. Two years back, he scored his maiden first-class hundred against Delhi and it was a sign of things to come from the promising cricketer, but since then the dashing batsman has been through a lot of ups and downs. From scoring heavily in the 2016-17 Duleep Trophy to being dropped from his Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, Agarwal has experienced emotions of all kinds.

The 26-year-old made his first-class debut in 2013-14 and hadn't scored a ton in his first two years. That is when he decided to turn to RX Murali, a sort-out technical coach in Karnataka, to iron out the issues that existed in his batting. Two years on and Agarwal now has the best ever start he has had to any of his domestic seasons. After bagging a pair in his second outing this season, Agarwal went on to score a triple hundred against Maharashtra before following it up with a daddy ton versus Delhi at Alur.

Although the unbeaten 304 came while opening the innings, KL Rahul's comeback meant that Agarwal had to shift to number three. The change in order, however, didn't bother him much and he went about his business in his own usual manner - cautious against pacers and aggressive against the spinners. He barely gave the Delhi bowlers a chance as he recorded consecutive tons for the first time in his four-day cricket career.

"I think this was one of his best innings I have seen of him apart from that game against Australia A where he played in South Africa. Of late this was one of his best knocks. This shows his potential. He's a stroke player and not someone built to graft an innings. This came out very well here. There were no inhibitions, he just went out and played his shots. It actually showed his mental make-up at the moment. It showed in the way he was stroking the ball," RX Murali said at the end of second day's play.

In the same mould as his idol Virender Sehwag, technique comes second on the priority list of Agarwal. He realised the defensive side of his game was weak and he set out to fix that with the help of Murali. However, he soon felt that all his runs scored had been with the same technique and decided to work on the skill part of his game.

"This year we sat down and decided that we were going to ignore technique and look at skill. We started working on skill. There's a difference between skill and technique. A technique is defined: this is how it has to be done, so cover drive.. there's a definition of a cover drive. We were working on ignoring all [of] that. The same ball, cover drive and you hit it the way you want to hit it, and not how the textbook tells you to. You play it any which way you want to and if you can do that consistently, you just stick to that," added Murali.

Another noticeable change in Agarwal's game this season has been his temperament. During the epic triple hundred, he batted for 727 minutes and during his 176 against Delhi, he spent over six hours at the crease. Again much like his idol, Agarwal's appetite for batting long hours was put on display through both these knocks.

"If you have followed him, right from his younger days, he has got more double hundreds than anyone else and earlier his strike-rate was far superior than what it is now. So he has always been a big run-getter. But only thing was runs would come in heaps and then there was a lull. Temperament was never an issue. Because every day, after training he would hit the Ranji nets and then come to my academy where he would play close to 400 to 500 balls. So I don't think he had any issue playing more number of balls," observed Murali.

Agarwal reiterated the same views as his coach. Batting for longer periods of time requires as much physical fitness as mental and Agarwal mentions that he has tuned his mind and body for the same through rigorous training and practice. "I have always worked hard and did a lot of long distance running. So I feel that it has helped me and for a guy, who you know hits 1000 balls in a couple of days, that's not too much and I am glad to do that," he admitted.

It is just the start of a gruelling season and Agarwal is sure to face sterner tests, but with the way he's begun, only bigger things would be expected of the Karnataka batsman.